Parfum d’Empire Corsica Furiosa

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Corsica. Photo: http://photo.speedresa.com/ via ailleurs.com

Corsica Furiosa is the latest fragrance from Parfum d’Empire, the always refined, interesting French niche brand founded and run by Marc-Antoine Corticchiato. It is an eau de parfum that seeks to capture the essence of Mr. Corticchiato’s native home, Corsica, and one that I was extremely excited to try.

I was in Corsica about 5 years ago, and went around the island, but my friends and I stayed mostly at a place called Domaine de Murtoli. It is a large 2,500 hectare estate with luxury villas near Figari, Corsica, which has everything from private beaches and forests, to shrub-covered “maquis” (small mountains), a farm, horse-back riding, and more. I very much enjoyed the island’s wild, untamed nature, whether it was Corsica’s mountainous plains of herbaceous greenness with a floral touch, its dusty paths, its pristine (slightly rocky) beaches, and its sunny warmth. From fragrant immortelle growing on high cliff-tops over azure waters, to an ancient wood that the Druids would have loved, beachside lunches of oursin (sea urchin) and langoustine (small lobsters) that had been caught just hours before, and a superlative restaurant located in a series of large, prehistoric caves inside a mountain, Corsica was a magical experience for me. Continue reading →

Serge Lutens L’Orpheline: Incense & Cream

Posted on August 3, 2014 by Kafkaesque

L’Orpheline is a brand new release from the venerated house of Serge Lutens, a scent that seeks to symbolically explore the line between the cool, silvered, smoky blackness of the moon, and the richer, spicier ambered warmth of the earth. To that end, “High Mass” Avignon church incense and aldehydes transform into creamy Cashmere woods with almost a Mysore sandalwood-like veneer from spices, black incense, and amber. It is a fragrance that I have very mixed feelings about, but one which I think will be incredibly appealing to a certain segment of the perfume-wearing world.

Regular bottles of L'Orpheline, now available in parts of Europe and from Serge Lutens, with a U.S. release date of September 2014. Source: http://grey-magazine.com/l-orpheline

Regular, standard bottles of L’Orpheline, now available in parts of Europe and from Serge Lutens, with a U.S. release date of September 2014. Source: http://grey-magazine.com/l-orpheline

L’Orpheline special edition 'Lettrines" bottle, available now at Palais Royal Serge Lutens, and starting from October in all of Lutens' points of sale. Source: http://grey-magazine.com/l-orpheline

Special edition ‘Lettrines” bottle, available now at Palais Royal Serge Lutens, and starting from October at all of Lutens’ points of sale. Source: http://grey-magazine.com/l-orpheline

L’Orpheline special edition "Croix de Cimetière" bottle, now available at Palais Royal Serge Lutens, and starting from October in all of Lutens' points of sale. Source: http://grey-magazine.com/l-orpheline

Special edition “Croix de Cimetière” bottle, now available at Palais Royal Serge Lutens, and starting from October at all of Lutens’ points of sale. Source: http://grey-magazine.com/l-orpheline

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Charenton Macerations Christopher Street

Posted on August 1, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Source: trimfabric.com

Lime margaritas and leather in a perfume cocktail inspired by the history of a famous New York City street. Classicism done with a modern twist, and with the goal of subverting gender rules. Those are just two aspects of Christopher Street, a citrusy leather chypre from Charenton Macerations. Another way of describing it would be to call it a clear labour of love, as evidenced by every single one of the many details on the company’s website, from its lengthy examination of the famous street whose history and vibrancy inspired the scent, to its creator’s hard work in trying to replicate just one of the numerous elements in the fragrance. After all, how many people spend two years profiling the smell of people’s skin on a particular street, using “a modified hairdryer motor and a GC-MS fiber”?! Yet, that is precisely what Douglas Bender of Charenton Macerations did. As someone with slightly obsessive, perfectionistic tendencies myself, colour me thoroughly impressed by his efforts.

Douglas Bender & Ralf Schweiger. Source: Charenton Macerations website.

Christopher Street. Photo: Charenton Macerations.

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Piotr Czarnecki Sensei & She ♥ Sensei

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Kafkaesque

Photo by Daniel Fox. Source: petapixel.com . http://petapixel.com/2013/05/25/photographer-captures-abstract-photos-showing-lava-up-close/

Imagine for a moment that the mighty Nile were a river called Sensei. It would begin with a small trickle of boozy rum that flows into three parallel streams made of stewed fruits, dark tobacco, and coffee. The small streams run past large banks of cinnamon and incense, sweeping up their essence as they all merge into a massive river of sticky balsamic resins which quickly flows out to the sea. There, they dissolve and vanish in waters made up solely of cinnamon amber. That is the essence and development of Sensei.

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